Posts in Category: PCI

New research shows that patients in need of a hospital transfer were treated 27 minutes faster when their medical teams used a smartphone app-based social network system (SNS) to set up the transfer, compared to medical teams who didn’t use the smartphone technology.

The research, published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, monitored the time that patients with ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) suffered from ischemia (reduction in blood supply) while they waited to have a procedure opening their blocked arteries. On nights and weekends, the treatment time reduction was even greater than during the regular work week.

One of the study’s senior researchers, Jin Joo Park, M.D., pointed out that there is a higher risk of death for patients who get to a hospital during off hours—a worldwide trend.

“Transferred STEMI patients rarely achieve timely reperfusion due to delays in the transfer process, especially when transferred during off-hours,” Park told Dicardiology.com. “The use of a smartphone SNS (Social Network System) can help to achieve timely reperfusion for transferred STEMI patients with rapid, seamless communication among healthcare providers.”

Over a period of 18 months, the study enrolled 114 STEMI patients who were transferred to Seoul National University Bundang Hospital. The transfers for 50 of the patients were completed using the SNS app, while the remaining patient transfers used a non-smartphone-based STEMI hotline. The transit times for both groups of patients were similar.